less of a means to an end and more as a lifestyle choice to promote health and enjoyment, and preserve natural resources. “Many people are becoming more aware of the impact of our consumer and eating habits on the environment, climate, and animal welfare,” it said in the 2019 Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute European Food Trends Report, for which 39 experts from Europe, North America, and Asia were interviewed. According to the Coop study, environmental concerns are now put forward as the main argument for eating less meat in Switzerland. This applies to all diets, from flexitarian to vegan. And the younger you are, the more likely this is to be the case. A nation of meat eaters Despite remarkable growth, meat substitutes are still very much a niche area. According to the latest figures from the Swiss meat industry association Proviande, they accounted for a market share of no more than 3.4 per cent in 2021. In point of fact, there has been no decrease in Swiss meat consumption. Since the mid1990s, the average Swiss resident has carried on consuming around 50 kg of meat per year. They ate 50.91 kg in 2020 and 51.82 kg in 2021. Overall, beef consumption is down and chicken consumption up. Retailer Coop also says that the demand for meat remains high – even in January, or “Veganuary”. According to Coop spokesman Frey, meat substitutes appeal to vegetarians, vegans, flexitarians, those who also like to eat plant-based alternatives, and those who are interested in food trends or in a varied diet. There is no one-to-one inverse correlation between sales of meat and of meat substitutes. Such products mainly attract people who do not eat meat, says Promilk alternatives are also finding favour among Migros customers, who have been able to buy soya drinks since 2010 and now have oat, rice, almond, soya, quinoa, chickpea, coconut and hazelnut beverages to choose from. In recent years, Migros has seen double-digit growth in nondairy alternatives, says Hefti, without specifying precise sales figures. Coop also prefers to communicate in percentages. It says that vegan milk alternatives have gained market share over the last four years and now account for 18 per cent of total milk sales. Frey: “At present, more than one in seven milk products at Coop are vegan.” For the sake of the planet Are animal-based foods becoming less attractive to Swiss consumers? Are we all eating fruit and veg, and more specifically plant-based proteins, instead? Yes and no. According to the Plant-based Food Report published by Coop in January this year, 63 per cent of the Swiss population consciously choose to have a day without eating animal-based foods more than once a month. This is over 20 per cent more than ten years ago. Meanwhile, the first-ever Swiss Meat Substitutes Report by the Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG), covering the Swiss retail sector from 2016 to 2020, says that sales of meat substitutes have risen sharply: from 60 million Swiss francs in 2016 to 117 million in 2020. They have almost doubled in four years, increasing by an average of 18.4 per cent each year. The biggest growth is in meat analogues, says the report. A shift in attitudes is cited as the factor driving the change in consumer habits, with people in the industrialised West viewing food and drink as Two popular initiatives on food production Will food production soon be on the political agenda? Two popular initiatives are calling for more home-grown food produce in Switzerland, but advocate two diametrically opposing agricultural policy approaches. One wants Swiss farmers to produce less feed for animals and grow more plant-based foods for people. The other initiative wants to reduce biodiversity areas to ramp up intensive food and fodder production. (DLA) Plant-based chicken made from pea protein – one of a new and increasingly popular range of meat substitutes. Photo: Planted Foods Plant-based alternatives to milk are a firm fixture on Swiss supermarket shelves these days. Photo: Keystone Feeding our insatiable appetite for chicken – a poultry farm with 18,000 birds in Gundetswil (canton of Zurich). Photo: Keystone Swiss Review / May 2023 / No.3 6 Focus
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